Dr. John's long-planned Louis Armstrong tribute album, "Ske-Dat-De-Dat...The Spirit of Satch," is scheduled for release on Aug. 19. It will be his first album for Concord Records.

On "Ske-Dat-De-Dat," Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack revisits 13 songs that Armstrong wrote and/or recorded, ranging from "What a Wonderful World" and "Mack the Knife" to "That's My Home" and "Gutbucket Blues." He's joined on the project by an array of special guests, including Bonnie Raitt, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Anthony Hamilton, Ledisi, Shemekia Copeland, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the McCrary Sisters, and trumpeters Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, Arturo Sandoval, Wendell Brunious and James "12" Andrews.

Rebennack previously has devoted albums to the music of Duke Ellington and Johnny Mercer. He also has staged two Armstrong tribute concerts, dubbed "Props to Pops," at New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music in March 2012 and at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2013.

Armstrong is "the most famous guy that ever came out of my neighborhood," Rebennack said in a press release about the forthcoming album. "He became a legend all over, for his trumpet playin' and everything else, and he was the United States' ambassador to the world."

Rebennack reportedly met Armstrong once, in the office of their one-time mutual manager, Joe Glaser. More recently, Rebennack says, a dream about Armstrong — who died in 1971 — set the project in motion.

"Louis' spirit came to me and told me to do something; that's how this whole thing started," Rebennack said. "Louis told me, 'Take my music and do it your way.' It was the most unexpectable thing in the world to me, to have Louis' spirit show up like that, but he gave me a concept of where to roll with it that was spiritually correct. That made me feel very open to try some different things, because I felt was that his spirit had OK'd this record."

Rebennack co-produced "Ske-Dat-De-Dat" with trombonist Sarah Morrow, who has been his musical director since 2012. Morrow also arranged the forthcoming album.

"The whole thing felt pretty special, and I desitively was in a different zone for this record," Rebennack said. "I wanted to pull together some of his hits and some of the songs he wasn't as well known for, and make them feel fresh and different. Sarah wrote some slammin' charts that kept everything spacious and hip. And everybody played and sang great, and gave it their own spirit."